that s the same type of aircraft and missile that shot down the chinese balloon off the coast of south carolina. one of the questions we asked at the pentagon briefing was if there was so much intelligence to gain by letting the previous balloon fly across the united states and being able to observe it, why was this one shot down so quickly especially when the senators were furious it wasn t shot down earlier. was the pentagon wbowing to political pressure. the decision to shoot it down before it entered into u.s. airspace, the pentagon bowing to pressure from the hill? we re going to judge each of these objects on its own merits. it entered into u.s. airspace on february 9th. we sent up aircraft to assess what it was. the decision was made that it posed a reasonable threat to civilian air traffic. the president gave the order to take it down and we took it down. in the end this was shot down just a few miles over the water. that water frozen so it did essentially fall
pacific. i am jose diaz-balart and president biden commemorates the historic gun safety law , the first of its kind in years. members of congress who voted for the bill and people who have been impacted by gun violence will be attending the ceremony. there are bipartisan measures for states to implement their own red flag laws and enhance background checks and mental health and cracking down on purchases. joining us with the latest, what is the message from the white house this morning? there was urgency with this important bipartisan legislation and that led to the president signing it into law without the ceremony we will see here today. there was the effort on the part of the white house to mark this moment as the most significant piece of gun safety legislation to be passed since president biden was senator. he wanted to mark this moment to celebrate with members of congress for getting this over the finish line but also families whose lives are impacted by this as well
We are covering the israelhamas war. Were Tracking Developments late today as republicans are scrambling to agree on any replacement for ousted House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy. We have a report on that and all its implications later in the newscast. Today u. S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken was in israel for meetings with prime Minster Netanyahu as troop amass at the border. Amidst blinkens trip, the Israeli Government today released new graphic Photo Evidence of the mass atrocities. Israel says the photos show how hamas murdered and burned babies, which blinken acknowledged while pledging u. S. Support. He a reiterated bidens views that the destruction is on par with isis. Soldiers beheaded, young people burned alive in their cars or in their rooms. In a litany of brutality and inhumanity that, yes, brings to mind the worst of isis. The first accounts of those acts came initially from israeli soldiers. They recounted what they had just seen after reclaiming areas under attack. Its no
Eric former Deputy Assistant attorney Thomas Dupree will dig into all of it but we begin with rick leventhal. A stunning set of admissions in Lower Manhattan by a man who was one of the president s most trusted employees. He lied, paid women off he says to pay his boss. He walked out of the courthouse late yesterday free on 500,000 bond pled guilty to hiding income from his Taxi Cab Business and hiding debt to secure a Home Equity Loan and arranging payments to two women in the runup to the president ial election in coordination in and at the direction for a candidate to federal office to try to help him win. Mr. Cohen disregarded that training, that tradition and decided that he was above the law and for that he is going to pay a very, very serious price. He admitted he paid 130,000
to stephanie clifford, Stormy Daniels, because she was ready to go public with a claimed affair with mr. Trump. And he arranged to reimburse a tabloid to bury a story about Karen Mcdougal who also claimed
community and the way the intelligence community may grapple with something like this may put the communications aspect on the back burner and perhaps nobody made the right phone call to the white house to alert people that, hey, you can take a picture of this balloon with your iphone which means it s going to be a political problem that, sure, that they both, a, feel the need to do this but also the reality is the intelligence community probably does this more than we ever know, we just never hear about it. in this case they feel the need to say, hey, we actually did this. that feels like a political move to me. congressman mike waltz was on the show, republican from florida, saying that he is still suspicious that the only reason they shot down the balloon last week was because people saw it. it was detectable by the human eye and they wouldn t have come forward with information at all because they were so eager to send secretary blinken to china and have those high-level talks.